Web feeds (also referred to as feeds or channels) are data formats used for serving users frequently updated content. A web feed can include multiple items. U.S. patent application serial number 2006/0288329 of Gandhi et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, illustrates a content syndication platform.
Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it, accordingly only content that is included in a predefined web feed can be syndicated. Content distributors sometimes also define a programmatic interface to their content (also known as an API), which allows programmatic access to the content.
There is a growing need to provide a more flexible and yet simple system, method and computer program product for defining distributable content from any web source, not just those that have a predefined feed or API. For example, this is a key requirement in the creation of “web mashups” (programmatic combination of content from multiple web sites and other data sources) which assume the existence of feeds and APIs.